Confounding Variables
by Antigone.Rose
Summary: In which Agent Lincoln Lee thinks about his partner, the future and impossible things. One-sided Liv/Lincoln.


_A/N: So. Lincoln was back! That part was good. 8D Lincoln was also a jerk to Olivia. That part was not so good. 8( _

_I have fashioned a solution to Lincoln-jerkishness-issue. Yep. _

_Disclaimer: Nooooope. _

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><p>Lincoln felt himself falling for her. He was surprised how fast it happened, he had never felt this much this fast before and it was scary. Not to mention the fact that he and she were tangled up in a web of monsters and lies and impossible things.<p>

He had always been a reserved person. Someone who kept his private life private and his feeling inside his chest rather than on his sleeve. For years, women had come and women had gone and, though he had liked them all and loved one or two, none felt…right.

Then came Olivia Dunham and, it wasn't in that first moment that they met, but soon after when he felt himself being inexplicably pulled towards her. She was fascinating, interesting, a study in contrasting colors. It was more than just the world that she inhabited that was a mystery…it was the woman herself. She was just as much smoke and mirrors, light and shadow, as the mysterious Fringe Division that she worked for.

He wasn't in love with her, not yet, but he knew that someday he could be. Someday, she'd be the woman who stayed, the one who was right. They were two logical pieces of the same puzzle come together and Lincoln felt a sense of fulfillment that he had never known before.

He could see the future, the logical progression that they would follow. First, they would be partners. Then, they would be friends. And then, they might be something more. And after that…there might be dating, there might be a proposal, there might be a wedding. There might even be a happily ever after in store.

Lincoln was a planner by nature and he saw his (their) whole life laid out as neatly as a spreadsheet. They would be the superhero-esque husband and wife FBI duo. They'd solve any case that was thrown their way, take on all comers. He looked at her and saw a future that might be perfect.

Then, the plan skewed sideways. A confounding variable was destroying Lincoln's logical progression.

_Peter Bishop._

He wasn't supposed to exist. That's what everyone, including Peter himself, seemed to believe. Lincoln thought that was stupid. He was a planner. People had lives, people had fates, people had things that they were supposed to do. Peter Bishop must have those things.

He seemed…_nice_. A genuine guy. He was smart, smarter than Lincoln at any rate, and he was willing to help them. Lincoln couldn't see why everyone was so freaked out about it. If the guy could help…then they really should let him help. It wasn't like they could exactly afford to be _picky_ at this point.

Olivia's reaction to him was…curious. She wasn't afraid of him because, honestly, fear wasn't really in her wheelhouse. She told Lincoln that she didn't like him, didn't trust him, wanted him gone. Lincoln didn't believe her. He'd gotten good at reading his partner. She rarely lied, so when she did he knew. And right then, she was lying.

He intrigued her. That was the best Lincoln could figure. The man had been in her dreams. That felt oddly personal. Lincoln found himself wondering what Olivia might have been to Peter Bishop. By the look in the man's eyes, she had been his everything.

Lincoln found himself suddenly questioning himself and his grand plans. Olivia was his partner. Was that all she was ever meant to be? Sure, he had the logical progression down, but were the players right? Was he assigning himself to a position that was meant for another man?

He looked at Peter Bishop sitting in his holding cell, decrypting shapeshifter disks, and wondered what was going on. Maybe everyone else was right. Maybe Peter Bishop wasn't supposed to exist.

Everything was so confusing. He wondered what Olivia was thinking. Was she wondering who he was, this man sitting in a holding cell who knew everything about her? Lincoln knew that she must be. How could she not be? Even with all the weirdness of the Fringe Division, this thing with Peter Bishop felt…extra weird.

He'd been partnered with Olivia Dunham a little over a month. Together, they'd faced shape shifters and talking fungus and general weirdness. They'd done it together, the two of them trying to solve the extra weird and the pure evil that lurked in the world. That was the key; they'd done it together.

Somehow, Lincoln knew that this thing with Peter Bishop was something that Olivia would have to face alone.

Peter was part of her past, at least according to him. Her past was something Lincoln had no claim over. But, her future? He had thought that they would face it together, him and her, Lincoln and Olivia, fighting evil and general weirdness.

That was the logical progression. That was how things were supposed to go.

_Peter Bishop._

Lincoln knew. He knew as he watched the man who was watching Olivia. They were going to be together. That's how it would happen. He could tell, deep inside, that it would happen. This man had some claim over Olivia, on that Lincoln did not and could not share.

It stung to know that without Peter Bishop, without the man who should not exist, Lincoln might have his happily ever after. But, the impossible had happened and a boy who was long dead was now alive. And that boy, Lincoln knew, would get the girl.

"Do you wanna get a bite to eat?" Olivia asked. Her eyes were bright, her hair sparkling even in the dim industrial lighting of the FBI. God, he could fall in love with her. It would be easy, so easy. He paused, almost said yes, but didn't.

"No." He told her and went on to fashion some excuse about getting back to his hotel. Partners. Friends. It would end there. Eventually, he knew that he'd probably fall for her anyway. But, so help him God, he'd delay it for as long as possible.

Not getting the girl hurt. Not even trying hurt even more. But, Olivia Dunham had been driven off the path of his logical progression and he knew, he just _knew_, that she would never return. He left her there and went back to his hotel, trying not to feel heartbroken.

He didn't have the right.

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><p><em>AN: So...there's some emo!Lincoln for you all. Review and stuff. I might write a follow-up about Alt!Liv and Alt!Linc...so, keep an eye out for that. I really do think Lincoln and Liv (any Lincoln and Liv) are perfect for each other, but cursed to never be together. How sad. _


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